Fatigue is divided into 3 categories, depending on the duration. ‘Acute fatigue’ that is reversed overnight, ‘subacute fatigue’that lasts around one week, and ‘chronic fatigue’ that lasts more than six months.

When fatigue persist, it is because the body does not get the opportunity for adequate rest & rejuvenation. During night time, our Parasympathetic nervous system (Rest, Digest, Tend & Befriend) activity should naturally increase as it prepares us for sleep, however with perpetual fatigue, the Sympathetic nervous system (Fight, Flight, Freeze), remains activated, making it difficult to fall asleep, and/or to remain asleep. We’ve all heard friends & colleagues lament they are ‘unable to fall asleep despite feeling exhausted’..if chronic fatigue continues, the risk of developing digestive & metabolic disorders increase, such as stomach & duodenal ulcers and the risk of obesity and diabetes increases, plus other lifestyle diseases such as circulatory disorders namely, hypertension, angina, cardiac infarction. Ultimately immunity decreases, leaving the individual more susceptible to become ill and increases the risk of auto-immune disorders and cancers too. We all have cancerous cells in our bodies all the time which are effortlessly processed by our magnificent immune system every day and eliminated via our Lymphatic system! Individuals with well-functioning immune systems, can adequately process and eliminate cancer cells, but when our immune systems are constantly at a low ebb, this creates a favourable environment for illnesses to thrive.

A person’s normal mental state is maintained by a balanced secretion of neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline or epinephrine. In states of chronic fatigue, neurotransmitter-secretion is disturbed, increasing physiological disorders like lethargy or depression. Some individuals claim that they do not get tired because of their tenacity & ‘strong willpower’, but this is not true. Often these individuals have an optimistic mindset and appear upbeat, but this is only because they are in a state of heightened arousal or ‘sympathetic overdrive’ ~ there is no off-switch, hence unable to ‘feel their exhaustion’! Dopamine, the neurotransmitter that allows us to feel pleasure, is released when motivation and sense of accomplishment is activated in the brain. Dopamine suppresses pain, and when it is released in vast amounts, one does not feel fatigue. If one works relentlessly without respite and is always ‘up & raring to go’, we must question ‘hidden fatigue’ a state that the individual themselves are not able to determine or even acknowledge. If one’s cannot register tiredness, we are likely to overwork which can have a detrimental effect on our health and reduce our lives by many years. It is therefore vital to ‘know one’s limitations’ and ‘The Power of Off’!

Research